And now Summer is here in full swing...or is it? We haven't hit actual 100 degrees yet in our area although the index has made it feel like it. Right now we are in the middle of week that will have highs only in the low 90's and our mornings are in the mid to high 60's. These are the coolest temps I can remember for the first week in August in a long time, if ever. We're having issues with the algae the heat in July caused. How are your ponds? I hear from the customers coming in the store and calling for advice that algae is their worst issue right now. I'm still recommending partial water changes and adding bacteria as I feel it is an imbalance in the ecosystem that chemicals are not going to help.

I may be preaching to the choir here but as I've said and will continue to say, too many fish is the primary cause of pond issues in this neck of the woods. It may be due to the growth of those small fish you bought six years ago or could be the fact that your pond was balanced and the fish spawned so now you have twice what you used to have or it might be that you just couldn't refuse that pretty little black and orange one last time you visited the store. The fact of the matter is that too much fish waste along with too little bacteria and too few plants are going to result in algae growing in your pond. It is an inescapable fact of nature. I feel like Smokey the Bear, "Only you can prevent overcrowding and overfeeding." That's paraphrased of course but you get my meaning. Your plants are going to begin to slow down their nutrient intake as they begin to go dormant for the winter, how slow depends entirely on the temps we have over the next sixty to ninety days. You should begin to cut back on the amount of food you provide your fish in about a month to encourage them to forage in the pond for their nutritional needs. This will help offset the reduced plant use of nutrients. Keep feeding the good bacteria to continue to build a strong bacteria colony going into the Fall.

Two more things we think are beneficial to your pond, ultraviolet (UV) lights and aerators. UV lights kill the single cell algae that turns your water pea soup green. They do not affect the string algae that grows on your rocks. The bulbs need to be changed after 9000 hours of use which amounts to a full year of continual use. If you remove the light for the Winter, you may get two season out of one bulb.

Aerators set outside the pond and pump air through tubing down to the bottom and out through diffusers which break the air into tiny bubbles. These bubbles rise to the surface drawing the water alongside them up to the surface and causing it to transfer oxygen from the atmosphere. So between the surface transfer and air being forced into the pond, you will enjoy a much healthier pond and your fish will be so happy to have the extra oxygen on these hot days when the water holds less oxygen.

We still have some marginal plants available. We'll make you a really good deal since we're getting to the time of year when the blazing Sun is not our friend in the plant beds. You can take these plants home and plant them in your pond and they'll come back as the heat goes away for the summer and they'll thrive next year with some TLC and a little fertilizer. Unfortunately, we are out of lilies, both hardy and tropical.

Still have vacuums available, you should look at them if you don't already have one.

This is one of those months when we don't have a federal holiday but we will have Labor day coming up early next month so watch for our announcement concerning closing in the September newsletter. I have a birthday this month so I get a day off--Yippee!!

Always be humble and kind,

~~~Mike